Mortal Kombat SNES

Description

Mortal Kombat SNES Game Cartridge

Mortal Kombat was released for the SNES in 1993. It was developed by Midway Games and published by Acclaim Entertainment. It was originally released in the arcades in 1992. This is the first of many games in the series that still exists today, becoming a best seller and still a popular fighting game in the genre. There was much controversy due to the gore and violence using digitized graphics that were realistic. Due to Nintendo’s policy back in the early 90’s of games needing to be Family Friendly, the SNES version replaced the blood and used sweat instead. Most fatalities were also less violent than the original ones.

The plot of the games is set on an island called Earthrealm. There was a tournament that was being held on Shang Tsung’s Island. Seven of the locations on the island will serve as game stages. The player will receive information on the characters with the biographies that are displayed during attract mode. Extra information about each character’s reasoning for entering the tournament will be received once the player completes the game with the character they chose.

There will be seven characters that will be playable the player can select. All seven of these characters have became trademark characters for the franchise and appear in other Mortal Kombat games. The characters were developed using digitized sprites from real actors. The game’s protagonist is Liu Kang, who is a Shaolin martial artist and played by the actor Ho Sung Pak. He enters the fighting tournament to beat Shang Tsung, the sorcerer who is the game’s main antagonist and is also played by Pak. He is also the game’s final boss.

Sonya Blade, an agent from the Special Forces, is played by Elizabeth Malecki. She is pursuing Kano, who is a mercenary. The actor Richard Divizio plays as Kano. Raiden, the thunder god, is played by Carlos Pesina. Daniel Pesina, who is Carlos’s brother, plays as Johnny Cage, who is a movie star. Sub Zero, a warrior of Lin Kuei, is also played by Daniel along with two other characters who are ninjas. Sub Zero’s blue colored clothing was changed to a yellow color for the character Scorpion, a ninja specter, and then green for Reptile, the secret character in the game. These palette swaps were made famous by Mortal Kombat and the later games continued using this technique for creating new characters.

Goro, a Shokan warrior with four arms, serves as the game’s sub boss. He is part human and part dragon beast. He is also a lot stronger than other characters and some attacks will not affect him. This character’s sprites were based on the model that was stop motion that Curt Chiarelli created. Once the player is on Pit stage, they are able to qualify for fighting Reptile if they meet special conditions. Reptile, Shang Tsung, and Goro were all not able to be used in the first game, but later became playable in the sequels. A Masked Guard that is present during Courtyard Stage is actually portrayed by John Vogel, Mortal Kombat’s developer.

While playing the game, the player’s goal is getting the opponent’s green health bar completely drained first to win a round. The first fighter who wins two rounds will win the entire match. Every round will be timed. If both of the fighters have some health remaining after the timer hits zero, the fighter with the more health will win the round.

The player will choose one of the seven characters to begin. Most fighting games had characters that had many differences in their strength, attacks, height, speed, jumping distances and heights. Mortal Kombat, however, were all virtually identical to each other with the only small differences being their move speeds and ranges. The attacks will vary and depend on the distance the player is from their opponent. All the characters will share the same attack sets that are performed holding the D-Pad in a variety of directions, like the uppercut and the leg sweep. The uppercut will knock an enemy high up into air and will cause a lot of damage.

Mortal Kombat was also the first game featuring unique ways some special moves had to be performed. It introduced special moves that were performed using only the D-Pad. Most of the special moves would be performed by tapping a direction and end sometimes pressing a button. Unlike the previous fighting games, very few moves are required for the player to do a circular motion on the D-Pad. Another innovation the game had were the finishing moves called fatalities, which would be performed against an opponent who was already defeated to kill them gruesomely.

The blocking system in the game also is distinguished from the other games in the genre. Unlike the Street Fighter games, the characters will take little damage from the regular moves when they were blocking. The button dedicated for blocking, however, allowed players to defend themselves against their opponent’s attacks without retreating. The character who is blocking will not lose much ground when they are hit, therefore this will make performing counterattacks a lot easier after successfully blocking. Another concept introduced in Mortal Kombat was juggling, which was knocking your opponent into air and then following with attack combos while your opponent is still defenseless and airborne. This concept was so popular many future games started using it.

During single player, the player will face every one of the other seven characters that are playable in a fighting series of one on one matches. The player’s opponents will be controlled by the computer. The last of the seven fights will be against the character the player chose in the Mirror Match. A few endurance matches will then need to be fought, with each involving two opponents. Whenever the player defeats opponent one, opponent two will enter the fight arena and time will reset. The player’s health, however, will not regenerate. After endurance match three, the player will fight Goro, the game’s sub boss. This match is followed with a fight against the games’ final boss, Shang Tsung.

Two players are able to begin the game together. The second player could also join during single player to fight player one. If the game was progressing whenever a second player joined, the winner of their match would continue playing alone. If the game was not in progress, the player who wins will start another game.

Between specific levels, the player is able to compete in the minigame Test Your Might to earn bonus points. The player will break blocks having a variety of materials when they fill a meter to a specific point by rapidly pressing buttons. Wood is the block’s first material. The wood is then followed with stone, then steel, then ruby, then finally diamond. Every successive material will require the meter to be filled more, resulting in earning more points. The minigame can also be played with two players at the same time. The final two materials will be only accessible during the mode with two players.